STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 440, 23 August 1928, Page 14

STRAND

“THE BUSH CINDERELLA” To-niglit “My Best Girl,” Mary Pickford’s latest and most beautiful of all romances, will have its final presentation at the Strand Theatre. Tonight will also mark the final presentation of the scintillating stage novelty “Tiny Tots in Movieland,” presented by 30 talented juvenile performers. Great interest will undoubtedly be shown in “The Bush Cinderella,” Air. Rudall Hayward’s latest and most successful drama of New Zealand life, which comes to the Strand Theatre tomorrow for an extended season. In the opinion of one critic, Air. Rudall Hayward, the producer, has made an outstanding picture. Aliss Dale Austen, fresh from her four months of screen experience in the American studios, portrays the leading role with marked success. Aliss Austen has a difficult part, as she plays two roles. In the prologue to the film, set in the early days of the present century, she plays the part of an unfortunate young mother whose lover has been killed in the Boer War, and who has been driven from home by her harsh guardian. In the story proper our little film, star plays the role of a happy orphan who entered the world at the cost of her mother’s life, and who has been adopted into the happy-go-lucky family of a country farmer. Opposite Aliss Austen plays Mrs. Cecil Scott, who has captured all the romantic air necessary for his part of the young naval lieutenant, with whom the “Cinderella” has fallen in love. Mr. Alf. J. Lawrence, the well known popular song writer and conductor, will personally conduct the Strand Orchestra in “A Trip Round the World” in ten minutes. Afterwards, on the stage, assisted by his charming partner, Aliss Nell Crane, he will present a short review of his own successful New Zealand compositions for the piano. That popular favourite, “I’ve Lost My Heart in Alaoriland,” is one of the numbers to be played, the others including “Come Down the Wanganui,” “There’s a Little Maori Whare,” and “There’s a Girl in Maoriland.” Eve Bentley and her Strand Symphony Orchestra will play a special musical programme, and will feature as the overture “Waiata Poi,” Alfred Hill’s famous composition. Lon Chaney, “Man of a Thousand Faces,” had also to become man of a thousand strange words when he mastered one of the oddest languages in existence—that of the New York underworld. In “The Big City,” in which he plays the part of a leader of a gang of criminals, he delved deeply into the lore of the underworld, learning the language of crooks and thieves. The new picture is a vivid mystery tale of New York’s night life, with Alarceline Day, James Alurray. Betty Compson, and others of note. Research for the picture included a detailed custom of the love of the underworld